Three time zones and you're out

IF THE San Francisco Giants or LA Dodgers fail to reach the finals of next year's baseball World Series, at least they will have one good excuse - jet lag. Scientists have shown that teams from the West Coast are likely to lose when playing away to their East Coast rivals. But because the body adjusts its internal clock more easily when travelling westwards, East Coast teams do not suffer as much in return matches.

This bombshell for the world of baseball stems from a lunchtime discussion two years ago between William Schwartz, an expert on daily biorhythms at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, and his colleague Lawrence Recht, a biomedical researcher and baseball fan. Schwartz bemoaned the fact that nobody had demonstrated the real impact of jet lag on society. Recht immediately suggested looking at baseball statistics.

The pair teamed up with statistician Robert Lew of ...

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